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A nice place to stay

I usually end up in the dog house when choosing places to stay online, it seems that I always pay over the top for something rather basic. I have now learnt that a recipe for peace and quiet is to choose the place and let my wife book the accommodation. Bierozka wasn't our first choice but we went to Bialowieza on a public holiday and a lot of guesthouses were booked up. It turned out to be a more than adequate choice and at 35zl (7 GBP) per night, we couldn't complain.

Adjacent to a camp site, we initially struggled to find it, this being largely down to the fact that we'd left the adress at home. At the very entrance of the village, it's about 15-20 minutes walk to get to the palce and park and is actually one of the more distant guesthouses. When entering from Hajnowka, it's a couple of hundred metres after the sign to Bialowieza and before the sign to the Belarus border.

The rooms were newly built and there was about 6 or 7 of them, each came newly finished with an ensuite bathroom and a small TV. The beds were large, although the double beds were in fact two singles pushed together. The mattresses were quite hard but comfortable and I could imagine it would be a cold room out of the summer season. Our room faced the back of the building, meaning we got a nice view of the makeshift car park below. On the landing was a kettle with cups, tea and coffee that guests could help themselves to. Overall, it was reasonably basic but rather luxurious for the price. The staff were usually on hand to cater to our needs and were incredibly friendly. At the time of visiting they did not have a reception as such as they'd not had time to build one before the season kicked in.

One evening we decided to check the restaurant/pub below. Despite being empty, it had an optimistic outlook, belting out "Disco Polo" (an odd kind of Polish music, incredibly simplistic and lacking in much in the way of musical talent yet quite upbeat all the same). We went through the restaurant and sat outside on the terrace, We ordered two types of soup, ogorkowa (a gherkin based soup) and barszcz (borsch), the former had a deadly amount of black pepper in it, so much that it looked as though someone had tripped over and dropped a bag of it in! My wife's barszcz was not up to her standards and she found it a bit weak and tasteless, we didn't venture further into the menu and decided to call it a night, presuming the restaurant wasn't the places strong point.

We obviously weren't alone in this school of thought as it remained quiet for the rest of our stay. Outside the guesthouse are some wooden tables that make for a nice picnic spot and there are two shops within spitting distance, if you want to make your own breakfast or other meals. Unless you study animals or live close by, multiple visits to Bialowieza are fairly unlikely but if I do return then I would not mind staying in this affordable yet modern guest house. The camspite which I believe belongs to the same place, also looks acceptable.